Sunday, November 11, 2018

The Center For Voter Information

Prior
to the recent mid-term election, I received, unbidden, a mailing from The
Center for Voter Information, purporting to list the candidates positions on
certain vital issues. It was addressed to me specifically, using my first name
only in the “greeting.”The CVI
introduced itself thusly: “The Center for Voter Information works to provide
information about candidates to voters like you across the country. This year,
we asked voters in your congressional district what they would like to know about
candidates for Congress in the general election being held on November 6th.”

Voters
who allegedly took the time to respond to the CVI probably don’t need to rely
on the organization to interpret the candidates’ positions on key issues. That
said, this was the first question posed to “voters like me
across the country:”

Not
only is that a preposterously leading and biased way of phrasing the question,
climate change wasn’t to be found anywhere in the list of issues those who
voted said they were concerned about.

The
second question at least tangentially pertained to an issue about which voters did claim to care, healthcare: “Medicaid Cuts: Do the candidates
support cutting funding to Medicaid (the health insurance program for
low-income Americans) for 14 million Americans? Democrat Angie Craig: No. Republican Jason Lewis: Yes.”

Roughly
half of American households have at least one member receiving government
benefits. In 2016 spending on human services such as Social Security, Medicare,
health, and income security totaled 73% of the federal budget, whereas spending
for national defense amounted to only 15% of the federal budget outlay. This is
nearly the reverse of spending priorities at times in the country’s past. We
have devolved from a nation of can-do people who only wanted a chance to “pull
themselves up by their own bootstraps” to a soft one populated by entitled
weak-tits who’d rather take someone else’s money than try to make their own.
And, we are $21 trillion in debt because of this.

The CVI
flyer also stated, by way of disclaimer: “A candidate’s position is sometimes
more complicated than a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ We have done our best to represent each
candidate in a fair and responsible way.” By using “yes” or “no” to explain the
candidate’s positions, apparently. At the bottom of the mailer, it added, “The
Center for Voter Information is a nonprofit organization that is not endorsing
any candidate in this race.” Now tell me the one about the three bears.

On to
the third and final question, fairly and responsibly titled and posed: “Millionaire Tax Cuts: Do the candidates
support legislation recently passed by Congress that reduces taxes paid by
millionaires and corporations?”

The tax
cuts in question were broad-based and cut the rate on small businesses and
almost anyone who actually pays taxes. As a result of this, countless numbers
of employees received substantial bonuses. About 45% of Americans pay no
federal income taxes whatsoever, while the top 1,409 filers pay as much as the
bottom 70% combined. The rich do not
pay their “fair share,” they pay astronomically more than that. It is on their
backs that the welfare state has been created. It is a demographic, economic
and statistical certainty that this cannot long continue to be the case. Even
if Atlas doesn’t shrug, fewer and fewer Americans are working and paying taxes
to pay for continually increasing entitlement (wealth transfer) programs for
the ever-increasing number that aren’t. Moreover, the American population is
aging, people are living longer, yet no one will give up their benefits. In
fact, many demand more. Obamacare, Medicaid, free college tuition, etc., etc. It
never stops.

And this was all by design.

Progressive Democrats knew all
along that once a society reaches the point at which we are now arriving, where
50% of the citizenry receive more in government benefits then they pay in, and
a significant percentage of the rest of the population works for the government, they will
never be voted out of office, will never again lose power.Voilà, Detroit. And then, Venezuela.

This is how a Great Society becomes
a Late Society.

Yet, anyone trying to prevent this is considered cold,
heartless and mean-spirited. Incredible.

Here are some similarly unbiased,
“fair and responsible” questions I would
ask voters such as those constituting the Center for Voter (Mis)Information:

1)“Slaughtering Unborn Babies: Do the candidates
support legislation to declare the murder of small, defenseless humans to be a
fundamental human right? Democrat X: Yes.
Republican Y: No.”

2)“Dispensing With the Presumption of
Innocence and the Rule of Law: Do the candidates support legislation that
would guaranty that arbitrary, unprovable allegations of any sort by any woman
against any man would automatically, universally and irrevocably be deemed as legitimate
cause to destroy that man’s life? Democrat X: Yes. Republican Y: No.”

3)“Climate Change: Do the candidates
support world-impoverishing legislation that would utterly destroy the global
economy in order to possibly slightly reduce the ‘chance’ that the Earth will
continue to experience dramatic changes in climate as it has since the beginning
of time, including, but not limited to, repeated ice ages wherein mile-thick
sheets of ice have traveled hundreds and thousands of miles south in northern
hemispheres eviscerating everything in their way, followed by astoundingly
rapid warming periods during which these pre-industrial ice sheets have retreated,
leaving lakes and glacial till in their wake?”

4)“Center for Voter Information: Do the
candidates support legislation that would officially recognize The Center for
Voter Information as the pathetically partisan, pandering, politically-polemic
polling group that it really is? Democrat X: No. Republican Y: Yes.”

Daily Trivia Quiz Answer

Today's Answer: Andrew Jackson. ("Poll" got so worked up before the service he apparently had to be removed from the premises, as he was cussing long and loud).

Q) What words appear on the front of the penny, nickel, dime and quarter, alongside the likeness of presidents?

A) "Liberty" and "In God We Trust"

An Ode To Life

Appreciate all you have, as it- and you- will soon be gone. Leave no heartfelt words unspoken, no sweet gesture incomplete, no act of love undone. Love your spouse with passion and abandon, your kids with patience and understanding but also a firm guidance. Love also the truth, no matter how hard. If pursued by enough people with enough courage, it really will set us free.

And don't forget, we didn't ask to be born. We didn't create ourselves. We are not gods. There is a higher power.

Fireworks of the Mind

Write It Up

Whence Shall Come Another?

True Then, True Now

"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."- Winston Churchill

Time Well Wasted

The power lies within your hands To do with what you may But the hourglass is filled with sands Of endless yesterdays